Betty Neuman 's Systems Model

My journey to nursing began with my personal healthcare experience, and has continued to evolve since entering the nursing program at State University. My personal philosophy of nursing is related my life experience and my personal philosophy of life. Using reflection-on-action, I have begun to understand the influences that have lead me to nursing. I discovered client and family centered care to be an important quality when I look at the influential nurses in my life. To develop a positive therapeutic nurse-client relationship, nurses must integrate all 5 dimensions of the therapeutic nurse-client relationship into their practice (CNO, 2006). When it comes to providing client-centered care, the dimensions of trust, empathy

The Neuman’s System Model prefaces the client or patient is seen as an open system, responsive to stressors within the environment which include these five variables:

Betty Neuman is a renowned nursing theorist who developed the Neuman System Model. This model emphasizes stress and the impact it can have on patients and nursing care. Key concepts of this theory include preventions, stressors, and lines of defense. Neuman also addresses the metaparadigms of nursing, health, human being, and environment in relation to her model. The Neuman System Model is recognized by nurses across the globe, and a Neuman System Practice Center has been established to help develop her theory (Gigliotti, 2012, p. 298). This theory can be utilized in any nursing care and is inspiration for other nursing theorists.

Betty Neuman created the nursing theory “The Neuman Systems Model” that tested an individual’s response to an actual or potential environmental stressor. Every individual has a normal line of defense to keep them stable and once it is affected by a stressor, the whole system is altered. The main purpose of this theory is to identify each line of defense and the effect stressors have on them. A nurse’s job is to stabilize the client by primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention techniques. Betty Neuman’s model provides a comprehensive and system based perspective for nursing. The purpose of this paper is to show how this system was developed, the significance of this theory, and its application to nursing today.

Hederson, S., Princell, C. O., and Martin, S. (2012, December). The patient-centered medical home. American Journal of Nursing, 112(12), 54 59. doi: 10.1097/

The healthcare industry has intensely advanced throughout the world, in turn changing the principles that incorporate the practice and culture of nursing practice. Altering the model of care to a patient-centered mode signifies an organizational culture shift and requires the participation of executives at the senior level (Cliff, 2012). To practice this care to provide the best care possible, it goes beyond the nurse to all healthcare professionals and senior leadership. The days of patients and nurses following a physician’s order without favor to care has now loaned themselves to more of an interdisciplinary approach to practice. Though, it is encouraged that the patient makes decisions for themselves, after receiving the proper education and information on their condition. Part of the patient-centered care is to be the patients’ advocate, by letting them know you are there for them when they are unable to speak and advocate for themselves and what is in their best interest. That goes in hand with educating them on “self-management of care, health literacy, patient, and family education through nurse-patient communication and interaction (Finkelman & Kenner, 2016, p. 271).”

Nursing was, for my sixteen year old self, taking care of the sick. Little did I know the complexities of that definition. Still, taking care of the sick was interesting enough to make nursing my major. I started practicing nursing years ago. However, I still struggle defining and explaining my profession to others. I usually start by differentiating nursing from medicine. Nurses see patients as humans rather than a disease that needs treatment (Zaccagnini & White, 2014, p. 15). However, as I advance my career, I must actively incorporate nursing theory into my practice. Nursing theory gives a foundation to understand patients and their health problems better. The use of nursing theory provides a framework to evaluate nurses’ interventions on a higher standard (Zaccagnini & White, 2014). Kenney described five steps to follow once the decision to include nursing theory has being made. This paper will explore the process of applying the Kenney’s five steps into my practice.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and summarize the philosophy of nursing and how nursing theory guides this nurse’s practice. Information used to do this paper was retrieved from the online database, Nursing and Allied Health Source and CINAHL through the SJR State Library. Our textbook, The Conceptual Foundations and the Merriam- Webster Dictionary website was also used. Some of the search phrases used were Jean Watson theory of human caring, philosophy of nursing, and Watson’s philosophy and theory of human caring in nursing on the online database. The word philosophy was also searched on the Merriam- Webster Dictionary website. There was an abundance information throughout my research on

The metaparadigm of human beings is defined as the one receiving the care (Branch, Deak, Hiner, Holzwart, 2016). According to Betty Neuman’s systems theory, human beings are composed of psychosocial, sociocultural, and spiritual variables (Neuman, 2002). Her theory highlights that humans and their environment are interrelated, and that humans contain buffer systems. Neuman describes these systems as ways humans are capable of interacting with the external and internal environment. Additionally, it is her belief that the environment is capable of causing individuals distress and eustress, which can illicit

The two theories that have helped to form my personal perspective on nursing are Erickson; and Rogers. Helen Erickson’s model is based on caring for an individual patient based on their own unique needs and perspective (Nursing Theories and Models, 2017). Erickson’s model took concepts from several other theorists such as Maslow, Padget, Seyle, and Lazarus and combined them to create a nursing model that takes care of each individual patient based on their needs ( Reed, 2017). This theory helps me to be more cognizant of the individual needs of my patient, not all patients regardless of disease process are the same. Each patient may have different underlying factors or circumstances that affect their health and current situation. Rogers’ theory is broader, viewing nursing as both an art and science, promoting health and wellbeing to patients regardless of where they are (Nursing Theories and Models, 2017). The science of nursing involves the knowledge and research of nursing, and the art is applying that science for the betterment of the patient. This theory views an individual as part

“Family-centered care” is a term heard often in healthcare settings and in nursing practice. Family-centered care has been recognized as being an integral part to patient health, satisfaction and health care quality (Kuo, et al, 2012). Family-centered care is implemented with the goal to increase partnerships between, families, patients and providers; and has been prioritized as a core-concept of quality healthcare (Gallo, Hill, Hoagwood & Olin, 2016) Many professionals, however, would be hard-pressed to state what the term “family-centered care” actually means and how it applies to nursing practice. They would be at a loss for how to implement family-centered care and what is absolutely necessary to have in order for family-centered care to be successful. Advanced practice nurses are faced with the challenge of adhering to family-centered care in their practice. Illness, both chronic and acute, and health does not just affect the patient involved in care. Illness and health affect the patient, their children, their spouses, their parents, their brothers, their sisters, their grandparents and anyone else involved in their life. Research by Davidson (2009) supports the idea that the perceived effectiveness of communication between healthcare providers and the patient’s family is related to the overall satisfaction of care. Advance

Betty Neuman was one of the many Nursing Theorist who impacted the Nursing profession in a way that would encourage Nurse’s to symbolize what we are today. Betty believed in the taking the total approach to healthcare seeing the whole picture when dealing with a patient. Betty Neuman was a very brave motivated Nurse in her day. She went from an Associates Degree Nurse to her BSN; finishing with two separate Doctorate Degrees in 1998. Betty was not afraid to step away from the normal day to day work that went along with being a nurse; and chose to try her best to find ways to be better than average. She realized over forty years ago the importance of seeing the patient as a whole, and not just focusing on the negative issues the

Healy stated “the original proponents of general systems theory used biological terminology to explain client needs, situations and the purpose of social work practice” (2005). The term that is applied for systems theory is for all systems in general. All systems have boundaries within which both physical and mental energy is exchanged. There are two types of systems that this applies to. Closed systems have no interchange across the boundaries whereas open systems have permeable boundaries or guidelines but there is also some room for movement, within reason.

Many nursing scholars have developed theories on caring not only because it is essential to the profession of nursing, but because it is a universal phenomenon that influences how every human being thinks, feels, and behaves. Unfortunately, due to the hectic and fast-paced health care environment in today’s world, the opportunity to develop an interpersonal and therapeutic relationship with the patient is often pushed aside by the demands of treating the disease itself rather than the patient as a mind, body, and spirit. Little time is often left

Masters (2015) defines a metaparadigm as a universal discipline consisting of multiple concepts that relate to one another. Each of the concepts intertwine creating a strong connection between person, environment, health and nursing. When all four metaparadigms connect it represents a person as a whole entity, thus addressing the person as a whole to promote well-being. Each of these concepts are represented in Betty Neuman’s Systems Model and show a strong correlation between the person also referred to as client system, environment, health and nursing. “The Neuman Systems Model is a unique systems-based perspective that provides a unifying focus for approaching a wide range of nursing concerns” (Masters, 2015, p. 128). A portion of the uniqueness stems from the model’s focus on the client system’s reaction to environmental stressors (Masters, 2015). The NSM consists of the four concepts and further breaks down into smaller domains.